Wired Equivalent Privacy

Wired Equivalent Privacy (also known as WEP) is a standard to use encryption in Wireless LANs. It was introduced in 1999.

In 2001, mathematicians showed that WEP is not very strong. A WEP connection could be decoded, with software that can be easily found, within minutes.[1] Because of this finding, IEEE created a new 802.11i group to fix the problems. By 2003, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced that Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) would replace WEP, which was a subset of then upcoming 802.11i amendment. Finally in 2004, they made it official and said that it would go ahead. It was part of the full 802.11i standard (also known as WPA2), the IEEE declared that both WEP-40 and WEP-104 are not recommended because they are not secure enough.[2]

Even though it only offers low security, WEP is still widely in use.[3] WEP is often the first security choice presented to users by router configuration tools even. Today, WEP provides a level of security that deters only accidental use. As a result, people can invade and enter the network.[4]

People sometimes call it Wireless Encryption Protocol, which is wrong.